The secret of life is to be interested in one thing profoundly and in a thousand things well.

May 26, 2011

Crazy-ass weather. We sat in the basement for an hour yesterday while a series of tornadic thunderstorms rolled through. We'd become kind of lax with all the warnings lately, but after Joplin... no more. And while the hail this size battered the house, it was all we could do to stay down there. Of course, as soon as the storm had passed, we ran outside and collected some. It was fist sized and kind of spiky. No damage that I could see, but man oh man, there could have been.

Dear Daughter graduated from high school. For those of you who've been through it, you know. Sad, yes, but, boy, are we ready to move on. The only thing is that she doesn't have a job for the summer. I'm scrambling for stuff for her to do that doesn't include endless reruns of House and Bones...

May 21, 2011

Did you know that the end of the world starts today at 6 p.m.? The Rapture referenced in Revelations, more accurately. I'm interested in the phenomenon. Of course I had it wrong -- I thought it was at midnight because I didn't actually read any of the stuff on it, just looked at pictures on the People of Walmart site and read about it in the comments on Regretsy and Facebook. Who knew it would be kind of a rolling Rapture based on time zones?

Makes me remember good old Iben Browning. Remember him? He predicted that we'd have a large earthquake on the New Madrid fault in December of 1990. We didn't, of course, but I was teaching then and had an earthquake preparedness bag located in my classroom (it was at the end of a hall near and exit) just in case. It contained an attendance printout so we could count kids, and a large first aid kit. Of course, it was still on top of my cabinet the year I left -- 1997.

And Y2K. There was a lot of media hoopla over that one too and I'm not too sure that there was much in the way of trouble as I remember it. All my VCR players still worked.

I do have some Rapture knitting. It's the Celery Cardigan (Ravelry link). I'm using Rachel's Dyeablolical Bling yarn in the Annie colorway. You saw it last time. Not too interesting yet. I'm fighting the pooling using three skeins at a time with marginal success. Photos later.

And I have a Rapture listen: It's a Julie Garwood bodice ripper set in 1820's London with a feisty Colonial chit and a brooding duke. Yum.

So, for what will likely not be my last day on earth, I'm knitting, listening, studying for 8th grade Science and English finals, helping with graduation announcements, doing a driving lesson, doing laundry, grocery shopping with hubster, grilling salmon, and dieting. Sweet.

May 16, 2011

I finished two sweaters this weekend! (It's easy to finish sweaters in a weekend when you have they laying around nine tenths finished.)

The green sweater is something I started a while ago. Like May of 2010. It's called Relax and it's out of Rowan Book 47. I thought it was too short and so I put it away. It's my denial school of knitting. I forgot the golden rule of sweater knitting -- wash your swatch. Well, I forgot that I did wash the swatch and that to get the sweater to fit and look like the picture I'd have to actually wash and block the sweater. What is that all about? I washed it and it fits just like the picture. Slouchy and long.

In the pictures, a willowy blond is wearing a size small. I am very nearly the antithesis of willowy blond -- but mine fits me and I like it.

I also finished the Mr. Greenjeans cardigan that I started during our trip to Mexico. Knit with new-to-me Noro Taiyo. This sweater fits me just like the sweater in the picture too. A little slouchy. Nice and warm even though the yarn is mostly cotton. The colors are great with jeans.

Yes, I see that -- I'm not quite finished with the sweater yet. I've got to weave in ends and get a button. The ends will be easy. This sweater used only 6 skeins of yarn. The Taiyo has great yardage. I did have to fudge some to get the stripes to progress consistently, so I have about half of the 6th skein left in little clumps.

I also added the obligatory 2 inches at the waist to this sweater. It's official. I'm loonngg waisted. Must be short legged too since I'm pretty short overall.

Next up? Castlegar Cardigan by Laura Chau of Cosmicpluto Knits(that's a Ravelry link). Rachel dyed me some Bling yarn in my own Annie colorway, see the yarn cakes? Yes, a cardigan out of sock yarn. It might take me a few years, but just look at those colors. It'll be worth it.

Now, bullets updates for the other stuff:

A few weeks ago, Hubster was slated to go to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. By a few weeks ago, I mean the Monday after Osama Bin Laden was killed. The trip was cancelled. Whew. I'm usually pretty sanguine about his travel, but this one made me a little jumpy. He'll have to go sometime soon, but that week seemed dicey to me.

Dear Daughter had a lovely Senior Prom. See? Cute boy, fun venue (a local art gallery), fun sleepover at a friend's house after (not with the boys!).

On Saturday, Dear Son took a Master Class with the tuba player from this band and then he and six other tuba players (tubists, Mom!) played a tuba ensemble at the school spring concert yesterday. They played When the Saints Go Marching In. Can you hear it in your head? Very funny actually, and great, and he was so proud. That's him in the middle and that's his cousin next to him there... Two tubists in the family. (Cruddy phone picture of the rehearsal-- I was a little verklempt during the performance and forgot to snap a photo. Doh!)

Last night, after the concert, we had a gathering here at the house for the family graduates. Of which there are 6. Three cousins graduating from high school and three cousins from middle school. And one cousin's birthday thrown in for good measure. I got Hodak's chicken and cakes from Sweet Art. Yum. We lined the kids up on the stairs to get a picture, but someone (I really don't know who, but I'd throttle them if I knew) messed with my camera while it was sitting around and turned off the auto focus feature. The photos were taken so fast and furiously that we didn't realize they were blurry until everyone was gone. Boo hoo. Hopefully, some one of the relatives got some good pics, 'cause I sure didn't. See? Cute of the kids, but blurry.

So, we still have Graduation yet to come (next Monday), finals for both kids, Son's Transition Mass (A paltry celebration compared to the Middle School "Graduations" going on all over town with limousines and all night lock-in parties -- what the heck? What will they do for High School? Wait, don't tell me.), Daughter's college orientation weekend, and another vacation. Oh. And a hip-replacement operation. Yeah, the next two months will be busy.